Sarah Wrote That

So the Massachusetts election reminds me of that point in Monopoly when, if you’ve been luckier than your opponents, you’ve gotten the first monopoly of the game, put some houses on your properties, and had your opponents land on your monopoly once or twice, and you compare your assets to theirs and you think alright.  The game isn’t won yet, but you’re safe and you can sit back.  Relax.  Enjoy it.  Then one of your opponents gets Boardwalk and Park Place and mortgages his or her other properties to buy houses.  And you land on Boardwalk and you think, how bad could it be?  All his or her other properties are mortgaged.  I still have this fine monopoly.  I am safe. And you pay in cash, because you can, and you like the idea that you can pay in cash, because you have such a good monopoly.  But this leaves you without the cash to buy more houses, and when your opponent goes around the board once or twice without landing on your monopoly, he or she has the cash to put more houses and then hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place, and when you land on one of them again—it doesn’t matter which one—you have to mortgage your monopoly and you have no means of income and no more cash, and you realize that there is no gradation between winning and losing and the moment you lost your monopoly on monopolies was when you lost.  And you think why didn’t I take this more seriously? And fortunately it’s only a board game, and you run out to the kitchen so the winner has to put away all the money and the little houses and hotels, and you make popcorn and then it’s time for dinner and after that bed and TV.